Oil burner



June 10, 1941.

C. L. COOPER vOIL BURNER Filed Aug. 8, 1936 ff e2 INVENTOR.

ATTORN EY5 in: the latter, and promoting b i gases. The invention will now be explained by de- Patented June 1941 'UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 12.24am I omnuiamm APplication august s, 1936, Serial No. 94,964

2 Claims.

This invention relates to oil burning heating apparatus and more particularly to small capacity oil burners for domestic uses, such as waterv heating and room heating.

A broad object of the invention is to provide an oil burner that is efficient, reliable and also very simple and inexpensive.

A more specific object is to provide an oil burner capable of producing clean combustion with the lower grades of oil variously known as distillate, fuel oil, stove oils, etc, having a gravity of not less than 34 Baum, without the use of a blower and with only moderate draft.-

Another object is to provide a blowerless 'oil burner that will operate efficiently and reliably on low grade oils whether operated at low, medium or high capacity.

Another object is to provide a blowerless oil heater that will start quickly. Another object is to provide an oil burner that will operate quietly without the production of smoke, soot or excessive carbon deposits.

Numerous other Speciflc objects and features of the invention will appear from the detailed description'to follow.

The type of heater to which my invention rel-ates employs a bowl or drum into which the a the serious fault that they operate satisfactorily only at a fixed rate. If the oil supply is varied to increase or decrease the amount of heat developed, such burners become inemcient, smoky,

. deposit excessive carbon and sometimes become noisy.

In accordance with the present. invention, I have discovered that the general efllciency and capacity range of bowl burners of the type described can be greatly improved by introducing 'into'the upper portion of the bowl, vanesv or plates which become highly heated and function as baiiies and radiants, radiating heatbacl: down casing 'I above a floorand a plate 8 is supportedv by brackets 9 below the opening 8 to prevent dit0 the 011 inthe bottom of the bowl 021d DOIIZ- turbulence in the suiting the particular embodiment thereof illustrated in the drawing. in which i Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view through a stove equipped with a bowl burner in accordance with the invention; and

Fig, 2 is .a horizontal sectional view of the burner taken in the plane 11-11 of Fig. 1.

Referring to Fig. -1, the stove therein depicted comprises a substantially cylindrical casring I having a draft opening 2 in the upper portion thereof adapted to be connected to a stovepipe 3, having control doors 4 and 5 in the front thereof and having an opening 6 in the bottom meet radiation of heat through the opening onto the floor. A

Positioned within the lower portion of the casing I is a bowl burner III. This bowl is substantially cylindrical in :shape and is provided with an outwardly extending flange II at the upper end, which flange rests upon the inner edge of an annular partition wall l2 secured to the stove casing I. The partition may be secured in place by welding it at the outer edges to the casing I at various points therealong. The partition I-2 is so positioned vertically within the casing I relative to the height of the bowl I0 as to support the bottom wall of the bowl a few inches above the bottom wall of the casing I.

The lower portion of bowl III is adapted to contain the oil to be burned and to replenish the oil as it is burned a supply pipe I3 is provided, this pipe extending from the lower portion of bowl III through an aperture provided therefor in the stove casing I, thence through a T I4 and a valve It to a supply pipe I8 which may extend to any source of oil under suiilcient head to flow into the bowl III. The valve I5 is used to regulate therrate of flow of oil into the burner and thereby -control the amount of hwt generated. The outer end of the T II is closed with a plug I1 which can be removed when necessary to permit scraping carbon deposits from or other refractory absorbent material 20 may be placed in the bottomof the bowl u. 7 The upper end of bowl It is partially closed by an annular cover 2I which sets loosely on tcpof the flange II and is centered by a downwardly extending shoulder 22 which fits snugly within the top of the bowl. A centralopening 23 in the cover 2i permits discharge of the flame and products of combustion of the burner.

To facilitate combustion, several vanes are provided within the upper portion of the bowl it and the upper portion of the side wallof the bowl is provided with numerous apertures.

Thusthere are two annular vanes 24 and 25, respectively,- the outside diameters of which are slightly less than the internal diameter of the bowl 10 so that they fit loosely therein. The

' vane 24 is positioned some distance below the cover plate 2| and the vane 25 is positioned a somewhat greater distance below the vane 24. These vanes 24 and 25 are provided with central apertures 26 and 21, respectively, positioned concentrically with respect to the opening 23 in the top cover plate. I prefer to make the aperture 26 slightly smaller than the aperture 23 and the aperture 2'! slightly smaller than the aperture 25. Positioned between the vanes 24 and 25 are three helically disposed vanes 28, each extending vertically substantially fromthe vane 24 to the baflle 25 and extending circumferentially substantially one-third the circumference of the bowl III The vanes may be supported in various ways. In the particular construction shown, the vane 24 is suspended from the cover plate 2| by rods 29, the helical vanes 28 are in turn suspended from the vane 24 by being riveted thereto at their upper, ends, and the lower vane 25 is supported on pins 30 extending inwardly from the wall of the bowl Hi. If desired, however, the vanes 28 can be secured at their'lower ends to the vane 25 and the. vane 24 can then rest loosely upon the upper ends of the vanes 28.

A most important feature of my construction is that. the vanes 24, 25 and 28 be so suspended within the bowl Ill that they are in poor heatconducting relation with the bowl. Itv would therefore be undesirable to attach the vanes to the wall of bowl III by welding, for example, or by forming the bowl and the vanes integrally in a casting operation. It is to reduce heat conduction between the vanes and the wall of the bowl that the vanes are made of slightly smaller outside diameter than the inside diameter of the bowl.

of the bowl, the plug l9 may be inserted, the

doors 4 and 5 closed, and the valve l5 adjusted to give the desired amount of heat.

Asa result of the fact that the vanes 24, 28 and 25 are exposed directly to the combustion within the bowl Wand are in poor heat-conduct- Air for combustion is normally supplied to the interior of the bowl I!) through numerous small apertures 3| disposed throughout the upper portion of the side walls of the bowl I0. To secure most efllcient operation, the apertures should be properly spaced and dimensioned. In general, I have obtained good results by employing holes spaced 1% inches apart and the sizeof a No. 32 drill, the bottom row of holes being spaced about 1% inches from the bottom of the bowl. Sometimes better results can be obtained by providing more holes in the upper portion of the burner as by spacing the holes in the top row closer together circumferentially. However, if the holes are too numerous or too large, the burner is apt to be noisy.

The burner in the stove described may be started by opening the doors 4 and 5, removing the plug [9, opening the valve P5 to introduce a little oil in the bottom of the bowl Ill and then introducing a lighted match through the door 4 and dropping it through the opening 23 into the bottom of the burner. The fibrou material 20 acting as a wick starts the oil burning and, as a result of the extra air introduced through the ing relation to the wall of the bowl, the vanes attain a relatively high temperature. Thus they may normally operate at a red heat, under which condition they reradiate a great deal of heat downwardly to the oil in the bottom of the burner, vaporizing the oil. The oil vapor is then thoroughly mixed with the air entering through the apertures 3!, the mixing being facilitated by turbulence caused by the vanes and burns to produce a clean flame with substantially no soot or smoke. The heated products of combustion pass up through the upper portion of the casing I and into the stovepipe 3, which connects with a flue capable of providing a moderate draft.

Although I prefer to employ vanes as shown in the drawing having central apertures through which the gases pass, this construction is not essential. The essential thing is to have the vanes loosely suspended within the bowl whereby they become very highly heated and reradiate heat down onto the oil in the bottom of the bowl to vaporize the latter.

Furthermore, although I prefer to employ the helical vanes 28 in combination with annular vanes 24 and 25, this is not essential. All of the vanes can be annular or they can all be helical and .still provide a burner much superior to the old type bowl burner having no vanes therein. If desired, the vanes can be constituted by central discs or fins positioned centrally within the bowl Ill.

Various materials may be employed in constructing my burner. In practice I have found it practicable to construct the bowl H) of steel and the vanes of cast iron. However, if desired,

non-metallic refractory materials can be employed instead of cast iron for the vanes.

The bowl l0 may be constructed in various sizes. I have successfully tested four difierent sizes, one being 7 inches high and 8 inches in diameter, another being 9 inches high and nine inches in diameter, another being 11 inches high and 11 inches in diameter, and the largest being 13 inches high and 13 inches in diameter. In these particular four burners the inside diameters of the top apertures 23 were .5, 6, 7 and 8 inches, respectively.

It is not essential that my burner be employed in a casing of the particular type illustrated in the drawing. It is merely necessary that sufiicient space and suction be provided to exhaust the flame and the products of combustion from the bowl H1 at a moderate rate. The bowl construction disclosed in Fig. 1 may be readily incorporated in a water heater by reducing the size of the casing above the burner through which the hot gases pass and inserting a water coil therewithin. The burner may of course also be employed in various types of furnaces, water boilers and the like.

It is to be understood that for purposes of explanation a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail but that various changes can be made in the particular construction described without depar'ting from the invention and the latter is therefore to be limited only as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A device of the type described comprising a fire box having bottom, side and top walls, the side walls having air inlet apertures therein and the top wall having an outlet opening therein, means for introducing liquid fuel into said fire box, and a heat-absorbing and reradiating body mounted in the upper portion of said fire box, said heat-absorbing and reradiating body comprising a pair of fiat annular baille plates spaced apart and a helical bame plate positioned between said annular baifle plates.

2. A device or the type described comprising a fire box having bottom, side and top walls, the

side walls having air inlet apertures therein and the top wall having an outlet opening therein,

means for introducing liquid fuel into said'ilre CHARLES L. COOPER. 

